EYE ON THE LIGHT (photomorph) & RETURN TO HOTEL CALIFORNIA, Dream Two (narrative) by Roswila

RETURN TO HOTEL CALIFORNIA
(Dream Two*)

my friend's sister happily escorts me
back to Hotel California, saying it's actually
a very safe place, so not to worry, adding
that in truth it's easier to get to and enter
when one has a guide such as she

when we arrive she leads me right down
the stairs to the hotel's deepest level,
several stories underground ... on the way
I notice how entirely different it looks
once one is inside: clean, neat,
and thoughtfully decorated

I'm then astounded to note
that that this lowest floor houses
a museum maintained by the distant
owners of the building, and that the glyph
on the front door to this deepest level
is the same one I'd dreamed of last night:
a small oval piece of cream colored coral,
intricately carved to resemble
an ancient symbol for an eye**

to my delight and surprise the numerous
ancient artifacts beyond the door
are all elegant and precise reproductions,
each pieced together like an intricate puzzle
out of plywood, paper, and paint

I follow my guide oooh-ing and aaah-ing,
deeply absorbed, when she abruptly
says she needs to smoke I'm aghast:
"Here?! With all this fodder for fire?"

she says not to worry in her now familiar
reassuring tone, as she'll not light up 'til
we reach the pool ... a pool! what other
wonder awaits us down here? and I note
that though overused the adage is true,
appearances can be deceiving

however, my pleasure in this treasure
laden place is disrupted when I recall
how far below the surface we are,
astonishing underground art may be
fine and dandy, but not when the walls
start to move in, and the stories
above my head begin to press down

it's definitely time to resurface,
I say to my guide, even as I silently wonder
how Hotel California will now look to me,
once I again stand before its dark hulk


[dream narrative on the second of two lengthy dreams of 7-11-15. *The first dream/piece, HOTEL CALIFORNIA, was posted yesterday; just scroll down if you're interested. These two dreams (yesterday's & today's) were dreamed on the same night, with a waking break between them. I've been working on them each day since the day after I dreamed them. And am not sure how much of my continuing hesitation about posting them is due to worry over their craft or their length, both of which do bother me a bit. **Click here to read about eye symbolism, which I think may be the heart of this dream. BTW, I do not recall actually dreaming that symbol on the museum door the night before, but the dream seemed to think I did, so who knows? Click here for the lyrics to the old Eagles song, Hotel California, which I vaguely heard in both dreams at a couple of points. Photomorph "Eye on the Light" (6-17-13 010v2d) by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers, as the above is), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

* * * *

until next time, keep dreaming,

[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's connections & other blogs: Charter Member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS); ROSWILA'S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA'S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

URBAN HAUNT (photomorph) & HOTEL CALIFORNIA, Dream One (mixed format dream poem) by Roswila

HOTEL CALIFORNIA
(Dream One*)

my woman friend and I
need to return a small flat package
of odds and ends
to a mutual friend, so we walk
to the building where he lives

the passages as
we approach get narrower
with each we slip through,
and each frame's far darker
than the preceding one

at last we reach our goal: Hotel California

a frightening sight,
it looks at first to be only
a burned out old shell,
but it's just in horrid disrepair
and painted black, over and over,

layers peeling and flaking even with no wind
to pester at its ancient wide timbers

it's sad to see that
it's now home to thieves and addicts,
a large dark man standing
on guard before the entrance,
questioning all who would enter

he gives my friend and me
passage, though not without some
obvious concern
at first: what could we two gals
possibly be doing in this place?

the entrance doorway
is the narrowest passageway
we've encountered yet,
and we worry about safety even
should we be able to squeeze in

I suggest we leave
our package inside the door
and she agrees
I lean in and quickly drop it
on the right side of the lobby floor

we turn around and go back through the series
of narrow passages, away from Hotel California

I comment rather
wryly that I'd never have fit through
these narrow portals
when I weighed 356 lbs.,**
not that it matters anyway,

as what did this effort amount to, we were too afraid
to even try to meet our friend on his own home ground


[mixture of tanka and two-liners on the first of two lengthy dreams of 7-11-15. *The second dream/piece, RETURN TO HOTEL CALIFORNIA, will be posted tomorrow. **I did actually weigh 356 around the turn of the century, but have in the ensuing 15 years come down in weight considerably (to put it mildly). These two dreams (today's & tomorrow's) were dreamed on the same night, with a waking break between them. I've been working on them each day since the day after I dreamed them. And am not sure how much of my continuing hesitation about posting them is due to worry over their craft or their length, both of which do bother me a bit. However, I also realize I might be resisting levels to this pair that I've not yet acknowledged. Maybe posting will ultimately out whatever might still be hiding behind the metaphors. Click here for the lyrics to the old Eagles song, Hotel California, snatches of which I vaguely heard in both dreams. Photomorph "Urban Haunt" (9-23-12 12152v10a) by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers, as the above is), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

* * * *

until next time, keep dreaming,

[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's connections & other blogs: Charter Member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS); ROSWILA'S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA'S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

FLAME OUT (photomorph) & WORLDS OF WONDER (mixed format dream poem) by Roswila

WORLDS OF WONDER

I. The Flaming

where am I? Comic-Con?
this fiery villainess simply
cannot be for real
but she is, and from another
planet altogether, to boot

and she literally burns, a breathing, walking flame,
her touch leaving only a hot chaos of embers

yet all she wants, like
some latter day Pinocchio,
is to be a human
but the vortex of her world always
sucks her right back into burning


II. The Explosion

OK, now he just has to have escaped
from an old Battle Star Galactica episode

there's nothing human
about him, he's made entirely
of a silver metal
that's almost blindingly bright,
in tall impervious pillars

his super power's
that of exploding at will,
giving new meaning
to that old idiomatic
expression "he's da bomb!"

he wanders the streets
leaving wide swaths of brokenness
in his dust-filled wake,
slow-mo-ing himself together
again after each blow up


III: The Clean Up

the old woman arrives
pretty much on time to clean
the messy bathroom,
saying she'll "have to do some
business" of her own first

I catch the meaning
of her phrasing, and as I leave
the cluttered bathroom
say I'll use the time to gather
all the cleaning supplies for her

silently puzzling that,
at her ripe old age, she's still having
to clean up messes


[a mix of tanka, two-liners, and dreamku on one dream of 7-15-15. Here's something I find interesting: fire which is considered male is a female figure, and silver which is considered female is a male figure. I'll explore this later when I have time. Of course, there's a lot more in this dream, as well. Much of it rather familiar so maybe I'll go trolling for new stuff that might be in it, via the Tarot tonight. Not surprisingly, I woke up with a strong urge to do some house cleaning I'd been putting off. And I've actually done some of it before sitting down to this computer, which is rather unusual. Photomorph "Flame Out" (10-26-12 12223ev5a) by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS):

But first, a request: please let me know of any typos or other sorts of blunders in my posts. As my eyes age I'm finding more mistakes are creeping into what I put up here no matter how many times I proof it all. Thanks for any help!

The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, monoku, free verse, dream narratives -- are offered in the spirit of collaboration. I have done my part. Now it’s your turn to jump in and see what comes up for you. I.e., there is no right or wrong way to relate to any of these dream offerings. Even my own understandings of them change over time. And it gives me joy when a reader sees something in any of them that I have not. (This all applies to any of the non-dream poems posted here, too.)

Also please note that a dream poem or narrative is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. It is my attempt to get down dream imagery/action that grabs me and, as I write about it, elicits my conscious written association and response. Nor do I believe that one has to remember dreams in order for them to do their work. In my understanding, we are much more than our conscious selves.

You may also note in any further reading on dreamku (the specific forms of dreamku, tanka, two-liners and monoku) you may do here, that in the beginning I stressed "showing, not telling." However, this has been changing for some time. I now tend to "show" (the dream story) and cap if off with a "tell" (some reaction and/or insight I've had to the dream as I was writing about it). This also pretty much applies to my free verse dream poems as well. As to what I have begun calling dream narratives, they are a different animal, probably most akin to prose poems.

For more in-depth exploration of the dreamku forms specifically and one post in which I also address my photo choices:

-- very brief comparison of dreamku and haiku: DREAMKU ARE NOT HAIKU

-- a brief post about both dreamku and my photos THE AREN'TS OF DREAMKU & ACCOMPANYING DIGITAL PHOTOS.

-- detailed three-part post about dreamku: "A DREAMKU PRIMER: Writing Haiku-Like Poems About Your Night Dreams": PART ONE: Introduction & Writing Dreamku as Dream Work; PART TWO: Elements of the Haiku Form Used in Dreamku; and PART THREE: How to Write Dreamku (the second and third parts have some overlap).

-- a short up-dating post about the three-part "A DREAMKU PRIMER" -- Important Up-date to A DREAMKU PRIMER....".

* * * *

‘til next time, keep dreaming,







If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's connections & other blogs: Charter Member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS); ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

BRANCHING OUT (photo) & THE TWO KEYS (pair of mixed format dream poems) by Roswila

THE TWO KEYS

Part One:

to help my dear friend
I've agreed to take her two
floppy toy rabbits
back to each of their respective
churches for interim care

the rabbits are large,
the churches a long walk apart,
and when I arrive
at the second church they say it's
the wrong place but they'll take the toy

as I walk off to visit with my ailing friend
her rabbit peers at me over the minister's shoulder


Part Two:

my friend's being cared for in a small cottage,
where I find her curled up in a corner
of an empty room, almost catatonic

but I know she's listening as I talk,
so I take my clues from her body postures
and my own gut sense

saying that, for me, endurance is one key,
that things do change if only minutely at first

and that intuition's the other key,
to listen beyond the roar inside
for those brief twinkling tweets
or evanescent arias, those strange songs
from the far flung branches of being


[Part One is two tankas and a two-liner, Part Two 2 is free verse, the parts are based on two separate but related dreams from 7-5-15. Photo "Branching Out" (6-4-13 005v7) by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers, as the above is), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

* * * *

until next time, keep dreaming,







[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's connections & other blogs: Charter Member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS); ROSWILA'S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA'S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

BARRING THE WAY (photo) & "poking from between..." (non-dream monoku) by Roswila

poking from between iron railings pugnacious green ferns


[non-dream haiku written 7-13-15. Photo "Barring the Way" (5-24-15 062v5) by Roswila; this is one of those pix that looks better in a larger version, so if you're interested just click on the pic.]

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers, as the above is), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

* * * *

until next time, keep dreaming,

[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's connections & other blogs: Charter Member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS); ROSWILA'S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA'S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

THE VISITATION (photomorph) & TWO ON ONE NIGHT (pair of mixed format dream poems) by Roswila

TWO ON ONE NIGHT

I

my pillow's attacking!
you'd think it being the nature
of the stuffy beast
it'd be trying for a smothering
but, no, it's going to eat me whole

as it opens wide
for a big toothless swallow
I scream out in fear-
fueled rage: I hate you!
and again I yell: I hate you!

the air of my room
seems thick with all sorts of threats
I know if I can
change body position, so too
will this horrendous dream

but my attention
gets hooked by the presence
of my little brother --
though only six years old, he
too, is something to be feared

I demand that he
go back to his own bedroom
though where that is
I don't know, as suddenly
I can't recall my home's layout

deep panic rears up --
now even my memory's
betraying me


II

our stepmother's left
tickets for us at the ticket
window for the Disney show
but what an arduous trip
just to find the amphitheatre

the evening's cool
and my grown brother and I
have arrived on time
I choose the row's end seat, to
be next to my brother only

maybe having me
all to himself will begin to
heal how I've failed him
I saw this show years ago
and it emits a gentle magic


[two tanka series, the first part capped by a dreamku, on two separate dreams of 4-19-15 (dreamed/written during my late spring blog break). Both brother and stepmother are deceased. And from the strong associations I have to them and other images in the dreams, they reference some living folk and current situations, as well. BTW, I have actually found that if I change body position when going back to sleep it's always a different dream. But if I return to the same position quite often what I'd been dreaming will continue. So that moment in the first dream's third tanka was ever so mildly lucid. Photomorph "The Visitation" (5-27-15 017v9a) by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS):

But first, a request: please let me know of any typos or other sorts of blunders in my posts. As my eyes age I'm finding more mistakes are creeping into what I put up here no matter how many times I proof it all. Thanks for any help!

The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, monoku, free verse, dream narratives -- are offered in the spirit of collaboration. I have done my part. Now it’s your turn to jump in and see what comes up for you. I.e., there is no right or wrong way to relate to any of these dream offerings. Even my own understandings of them change over time. And it gives me joy when a reader sees something in any of them that I have not. (This all applies to any of the non-dream poems posted here, too.)

Also please note that a dream poem or narrative is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. It is my attempt to get down dream imagery/action that grabs me and, as I write about it, elicits my conscious written association and response. Nor do I believe that one has to remember dreams in order for them to do their work. In my understanding, we are much more than our conscious selves.

You may also note in any further reading on dreamku (the specific forms of dreamku, tanka, two-liners and monoku) you may do here, that in the beginning I stressed "showing, not telling." However, this has been changing for some time. I now tend to "show" (the dream story) and cap if off with a "tell" (some reaction and/or insight I've had to the dream as I was writing about it). This also pretty much applies to my free verse dream poems as well. As to what I have begun calling dream narratives, they are a different animal, probably most akin to prose poems.

For more in-depth exploration of the dreamku forms specifically and one post in which I also address my photo choices:

-- very brief comparison of dreamku and haiku: DREAMKU ARE NOT HAIKU

-- a brief post about both dreamku and my photos THE AREN'TS OF DREAMKU & ACCOMPANYING DIGITAL PHOTOS.

-- detailed three-part post about dreamku: "A DREAMKU PRIMER: Writing Haiku-Like Poems About Your Night Dreams": PART ONE: Introduction & Writing Dreamku as Dream Work; PART TWO: Elements of the Haiku Form Used in Dreamku; and PART THREE: How to Write Dreamku (the second and third parts have some overlap).

-- a short up-dating post about the three-part "A DREAMKU PRIMER" -- Important Up-date to A DREAMKU PRIMER....".

* * * *

‘til next time, keep dreaming,







If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's connections & other blogs: Charter Member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS); ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA’S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.

EVENING'S EDGE (photomorph) & TWO EVENINGS (two non-dream tanka) by Roswila

TWO EVENINGS

hands up sleeves for warmth,
I stand by the door, Guardian
of the Laundry Room
the setting sun casts long shadows
as the full dryer lumbers on

* * * *

ah! what a relief
others rush on by as I
sit and simply breathe
the pool water also still
on this stellar evening


[Non-dream tanka written 3-10-15 & 7-11-15, respectively. I'm working on two very long dream pieces. And it's actually not the length that's the problem, it's that I don't feel I've found the heart of either of them yet. I'm hoping that's because they're touching on new territory. Not just due to my resistance to older messages (wry smile). So in the meantime, there's always the occasional new non-dream haiku or tanka to post. Photomorph "Evening's Edge" (6-5-09 1840v4a) by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers, as the above is), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

* * * *

until next time, keep dreaming,







[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's connections & other blogs: Charter Member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS); ROSWILA'S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA'S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.